Exploring the effect of unfair work contexts on the development of fairness beliefs (original) (raw)

Moral reasoning appears at a very young age and develops through adulthood (e.g., Enright, Franklin & Mannheim, 1980). Very young children perceive that "bad" behavior has immediate negative consequences (Jose, 1991), and they first tend to allocate rewards based on self-interest, then physical characteristics, giving more to the biggest or oldest child (Damon, 1973, 1975; Enright et al., 1980; Thomson & Jones, 2005). This is called the preconventional level in Kohlberg's model of moral development (1969, 1971). Allocations change as children interact more with peers and learn to negotiate, share, have mutual respect, and understand others' perspectives (Damon, 1973, 1975; DeRemer & Gruen, 1979; Rest, 1983). During this time, strict equality in distributions occurs initially, but later, merit is used, with children allocating larger rewards to the most productive individuals (Damon, 1973, 1975). Thus, social forces help children develop what Kohlberg (1969, 1971) calls the conventional level of moral reasoning (stages 3 and 4) in which respect from others based on following social norms, rules, and laws is important. Most adults function at this level of reasoning and maintain social order without questioning it (Kohlberg, 1969, 1971). Later phases of moral reasoning (stages 5 and 6) involve more cognitive complexity (Kohlberg, 1969, 1971). In the postconventional phase, individuals recognize that compromises are sometimes needed because notions of what is just can differ since the distribution of resources and rewards can be based on a number of criteria, such as self-interest, physical characteristics, need, relationship ties, and behavior or productivity (Damon, 1973, 1975; Duetsch, 1975; Thomson & Jones, 2005). In addition, individuals recognize that maintaining the existing social order is not always beneficial and consider the rights and values that should be upheld (Kohlberg, 1969, 1971). Presumably, adults carry their current level of moral reasoning with them into the workplace, whether it be preconventional, conventional, or postconventional. Justice in the workplace has become a very active research area in recent years (Fortin & Fellenz, 2008). The early literature in this area concerned only the perceived fairness of outcomes (later termed distributive justice), and similar to the literature on moral development, it indicated that people use different criteria, including equity, equality, and need, depending on the context (Adams, 1963, 1965; Blau, 1964; Homans, 1961; Konow, 2003). Later however, it was suggested that fairness can be assessed in terms of procedures and interactions, as well as outcomes. Procedural justice refers to the perceived fairness of processes used to determine the awarding of outcomes, and interactional justice refers to the perceived fairness of interpersonal relations associated with the distribution of outcomes (e.g., Thibaut & Walker, 1975; Bies & Moag, 1986). Research into these additional concepts indicate that sometimes fairness is perceived when distributive or interactional justice is present although outcomes are not fairly distributed, which have been called the "fair process" and "fair information"